Crockett Proposes Move to Effective Tax Rate

CROCKETT – The Crockett City Council approved a proposed tax rate of 0.586094 per $100 of property valuation during a regularly scheduled council meeting held on Monday, Aug. 7.

The current tax rate is 0.533823 per $100 of property valuation. The effective tax rate, based on the certified tax roll for the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2018, is 0.586094 per $100 of property valuation while the rollback tax rate is 0.591966.

According to Section 26.16 of the Texas Property Tax Code, “The effective tax rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in the current tax year as was generated by a taxing unit’s adopted tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both the current tax year and the preceding tax year. The rollback tax rate is the highest tax rate a taxing unit may adopt before requiring voter approval at an election.”

City Administrator John Angerstein read the city’s budget message after a brief discussion and approval of capital requests.

“From an operational standpoint, this is a very lean budget; with most resources being used to maintain existing service levels and to absorb increases such as an eight percent increase in health insurance. Under this budget, all of the capital equipment purchases are being funded through sanitary contingency fund and a small portion from our general contingency,” he said.

Angerstein explained the 2017-2018 proposed tax levy represented “… no change in ad valorem tax revenues for general government services. The tax rate for municipal purposes required to fund this draft budget is the effective tax rate of 0.586094 per $100 of value; which is 0.052271 per hundred higher than last year’s tax rate of 0.53383.”

He explained the average home value in Crockett was approximately $82,600. Under the city’s proposed tax rate, the average tax bill on a home valued at $82,600 would increase by approximately $43 or just over seven dollars per month.

Following the reading of the budget message the council unanimously approved the proposed tax rate of 0.586094 and set public hearings on the tax rate and budget for Aug. 14 and Aug. 21. The council is expected to adopt the proposed tax rate on Aug. 28.

Prior to the tax rate discussion, the council awarded a grant application for grant management services to GrantWorks.

The grant applied for by the city is under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for a 2017 downtown revitalization and main street fund grant.

Angerstein said the city had received two applications and added he “… didn’t think there was a bad choice between the two. The proposals were both very well done. They have both done work for the city of Crockett in the past, but we chose GrantWorks because their bid was significantly lower than Traylor Associates and they have done more recent work for the city of Crockett.”

With no discussion, a motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to award GrantWorks the grant management services contract.

In other matters brought before the council:

Crockett Police Lt. Jerrod Vickers reported the police department received 391 calls for service during the month of July which resulted in 61 arrests. There were 100 traffic citations issued and 105 police reports filed.

Crockett Fire Chief Jason Frizzell reported the fire department responded to 36 calls during the month of July with two structure fires – one in the city and one in the county.

Angerstein was authorized to advertise for requests for proposals for the removal and installation of roof shingles for the city of Crockett’s public library